Look For The Unexpected

Hello again my friend. Today I want to talk about Palm Sunday. When we carry our palms we are carrying the important message of love, just like Jesus did when he cam into town riding on a donkey.

Let's go ahead and say our repeat-after-me rhyme to go with our message of love for today. Here we go:

We come today

And we're here to stay

We're looking for love

In just the right way

For Jesus is clear

When we listen to hear

His love for us

Is oh, so dear!

Thank you for joining me! We've all heard the story about Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. But you know what? Riding on a donkey was a big deal when he did it! Have you ever been to a parade or maybe you've seen the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv? The Grand Marshall is the most important person in the parade. When he or she come in, you know it because usually they are on the fanciest float or riding in the fanciest car in the whole parade. We usually see important people in very important-looking vehicles, don't we. Well, some people wanted to see Jesus ride in to Jerusalem all tricked out like an important person would. They wanted him to swoop in and help them solve al their problems.

But Jesus chose to come in on a donkey! Usually donkeys are shorter than horses, so Jesus' feet must have been almost touching the ground! And donkeys have those funny-looking ears, not the royal look of a purebred horse for sure! But if we think more about this, we can see that being lower on a donkey instead of high up on a horse puts you at eye-level with everyone. And the donkey's ears are big because they need to listen really well. Both of this things are also great lessons about how to love, aren't they!

So today our Scrabble board letters say, "Expect the Unexpected!"

U

N

E X P E C T

P

T H E

C

T

E

D

And with Jesus, people had come to expect the unexpected. He did some things that some people thought were really weird, like eating dinner with common people like us, or even with people others didn't like. He hung out with women and children, which was not a normal thing to do back then. He talked to people that were of different cultures and faiths and he touched people who were sick! No that was not considered a safe thing to do in Jesus's day.

So, riding into town on a donkey in his parade was really not that surprising. Because Jesus taught all his life to expect the unexpected when it comes to the right way to really find love. He showed us that we don't need to look for love in the big, shiny, expensive, flashy things in our own parade of life, but that we can find love in the common, even simple things of life. We can find love in what is right in front of us already.

For God is love and love is God. And those two words have come together again on our Scrabble board to make our closing prayer.

Please repeat after me:

God is Love.

Love is God.

Amen